1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air cleaner, particularly of an internal combustion engine, provided with an adsorbent adsorbing evaporated fuel existing in an intake unit of an internal combustion engine.
2. Related Art
In an intake unit of an internal combustion engine, in order to prevent an evaporated fuel returned from an engine side from discharging into atmosphere, an adsorbent adsorbing the evaporated fuel is disposed in an air cleaner of the internal combustion engine.
For example, in an air cleaner disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 2002-276486 (Patent Publication 1), an adsorbent composed of activated carbon is sandwiched by non-woven fabrics to thereby form an adsorbent filter, which is disposed inside a housing of the air cleaner.
In the invention disclosed in this Patent Publication 1, in order to protect such adsorbent from backfire, the filter is composed of a net-shaped material having heat-proof property and disposed on the engine side of the adsorbent.
Indeed, for the adsorbent in which the adsorbing material is sandwiched by the non-woven fabrics, there exists a subject of protecting the adsorbent from the backfire.
Further, there exists a problem of preventing the adsorbent from being damaged or bowed which will be caused by air-suction. However, in the invention disclosed in the Patent Publication 1, it is difficult to prevent the adsorbent from being damaged and bowed caused by the air-suction.